The Hollowing

Morgan reached for the light within them, clinging to it like a lifeline. It pulsed in their grasp, warm and steady, a beacon in the darkness. They poured every ounce of will into it, shaping it, strengthening it, until it blazed like a sun in the heart of the void.

The Hollowing shrieked, a sound of agony and rage, and then Morgan was falling again, the world dissolving around them.

They hit the ground hard, the breath knocked from their lungs. For a long moment, they lay there, stunned, their body aching, their mind reeling. Then, slowly, they pushed themselves up, blinking in the sudden light.

They were lying on the overgrown lawn outside the estate, the house looming behind them like a silent sentinel. The front door stood open, the darkness within beckoning.

Morgan scrambled to their feet, heart pounding, and stumbled down the driveway. They didn’t look back. Didn’t dare. The Hollowing’s presence was a weight on their shoulders, a shadow at their back.

They walked for hours, the road stretching before them like a ribbon of grey. The world outside the estate seemed subtly wrong, as if viewed through a distorted lens. Colors were too bright, sounds too sharp. The air itself seemed to thrum with a low, discordant hum.

Morgan’s mind felt fractured, memories of their confrontation with the Hollowing replaying in jagged fragments. The entity’s voice echoed in their thoughts, a constant, sinister whisper. It was still out there, waiting. Watching.

Days turned to weeks, weeks to months. Morgan moved from place to place, never staying long, always looking over their shoulder. They wrote, pouring their experiences onto the page, but the words seemed to twist and change, taking on a life of their own.

The Hollowing’s influence lingered, a stain on their soul. They saw it in the shadows that clung too closely, in the reflections that moved when they weren’t looking. It was always there, a reminder of what they had endured, and what still waited in the dark.

Morgan knew they would never be free of it. The Hollowing was a part of them now, a wound that would never heal. But they would keep fighting, keep writing, keep shining a light into the darkness.

For in the end, that was all they could do. Keep the shadows at bay, one word at a time.